Posts Tagged ‘Abuser judges’

PMA International has launched a new series called”TIPSS 4 Hero Protective Moms – Ask PMA”.

Once a month, PMA International will share with our members/supporters on our official PMA International Facebook page, commonly asked questions and concerns about family court abuse, domestic abuse and personality disorder issues. Parenting tips for children of all ages whose families have been affected by the above will also be a topic of conversation.

Emphasis on peer support and drawing from our wide range of experiences on these issues is our goal. PMA International will encourage all our members and supporters to offer their insights and opinions to each situation addressed.

We are confident as this series continues you will gain knowledge, hope and discover the Protective Mother Hero within yourself and each other.

~ The PMA International Team

(We start the TIPSS series in June 2016. You may send your questions in a FB message on our FB site until further notice,link below)

TIPSS 4 Hero Protective Moms- ask PMA Does Not Get Involved In Personal Custody Cases and cannot give advice/ legal advice, on personal custody cases, as we are not attorneys.

The information from this series is not intended to serve as legal advice or as a guarantee, warranty or prediction regarding the outcome of any particular legal matter.

If you have a legal problem, seek professional legal counsel.

TIPSS 4 Hero Protective Moms- ask PMA is based on opinions and experiences only and is not meant to serve as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified professional.

For your safety, we strongly suggest you do not use any identifying information about yourself, your minor child or your legal issues. PMA International reserves the right to edit both submissions and responses for your safety and safety of your minor child.

“My ex filed contempt against me for any silly thing he could think of. The judge held me in contempt for taking 28 hours instead of the court ordered 24 hours to return an email And finally The Judge held me in contempt and sentenced me to 2 days in jail for adding 17 minutes to my ex’s commute time.”

A Florida county judge berated a domestic violence victim for failing to appear at her alleged abuser’s trial and then sentenced the sobbing woman to jail, courtroom video shows.

Seminole County Judge Jerri Collins was captured heartlessly rebuking the pleading woman as she desperately apologizes and says her depression and anxiety kept her from facing her abuser in court.

“You think you’re going to have anxiety now? You haven’t even seen anxiety,” Collins says before issuing her decision.

The victim had to appear before the judge on July 30 for contempt of court hearing, WFTV-9 reported.

She had ignored a subpoena to testify against the father of her child who allegedly choked her and threatened her with a kitchen knife, the local news station said.

“Your honor, I’m very sorry for not attending the last one,” she said through tears. “I’ve been dealing with depression and just a lot personally since this happened. My anxiety is like, this is every day for me.”

The unmoved Collins tells the woman she was required to appear under court order.

“You disobeyed a court order, knowing that this was not going to turn out well for the state,” Collins said.

The woman apologizes again, telling the judge she’s homeless and “not in a good place right now.”

“And violating your court order did not do anything for you,” Collins said. “I find you in contempt of court. I hereby sentence you to three days in the county jail.”

The rattled woman can be seen dramatically making one last final plea to the judge as she’s being hauled away.

“Judge, I’ll do anything … I have a 1-year-old son, and I’m trying to take care of him by myself. I’m begging you, please, please don’t,” she said.

Collins, who was reportedly appointed to the position by former Governor Jeb Bush, has held her seat since 2005.

She was re-elected to the court last year for another six-year term.

Neither Collins nor her office returned a request for comment Thursday.

The ruthless ruling was unnecessary and damaging, according to a former prosecutor who now advocates for domestic abuse victims.

“It was pretty brutal. It got to my heart,” Safehouse of Seminole CEO Jeanne Gold told the Daily News. “I thought she will never ever call the police again. She’ll never look for help again. It’s so sad.”

The victim’s alleged abuser was sentenced to 16 days in jail for simple battery and was ordered to pay court costs, WFTV-9 reported.

During her bid for re-election last year, Collins told The Orlando Political Observer she should be voted back into office because she makes a “positive impact on the citizens and the litigants that come before the court.”

“Every litigant deserves an experienced, knowledgeable individual presiding over their case,” she said at the time. “I’ve enjoyed my role as a judge. I enjoy the law. Most importantly, I enjoy serving my community.”

According to court documents obtained by ABC Action News, Eric R. Myers is accused of hitting a family member with both an open and closed fist at around 9:30 pm Friday.

According to the criminal report affidavit, Myers admitted to authorities that he grabbed the hair of a family member and struck the person one time in the face with an open hand, causing “redness and swelling to [the] right ear.”

Court records list the location of arrest as 401 N. Jefferson Street, where the courthouse and Myers’s office is located.

The alleged domestic violence did not occur at the courthouse, according to court records.

Myers was released from jail Saturday morning on $500 bail.

Myers was originally appointed a county judgeship position in 2000 by then-Governor Jeb Bush, and overseas cases of traffic citations and misdemeanor crimes, including domestic violence.

He was re-elected in 2014, now serving a six-year term that expired in 2021, according to online county records.

Myers is a graduate of Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., according to his online county profile, and is a member of the Hillsborough County Bar Association, as well as a Harram Temple Shriners Mason.

An admittedly intemperate family court judge has been suspended without pay for the remaining years of his term by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

In one angry rant from the bench that has been viewed on YouTube more than 200,000 times, Putnam County Circuit Court Family Law Judge William M. Watkins III repeatedly told a pastor appearing before him to “shut up.” And this was far from the only time he spoke to parties using inappropriate language, according to the opinion (PDF) filed Tuesday by the supreme court.

In one hearing, the opinion says, when speaking to a woman who was seeking an order of protection against her then-husband in a domestic violence case, Watkins blamed the woman for “shooting off your fat mouth about what happened,” told her to “Shut up!” and then continued:

“Shut up! You stupid woman. Can’t even act properly. One more word out of you that you aren’t asked a question you’re out of here, and you will be found in direct contempt of court and I will fine you appropriately. So, shut your mouth.You know I hate it when people are just acting out of sheer spite and stupidity.”

The court also criticized Watkins for failing to make timely rulings, failing to comply with court orders to do so and failing to see that his staff timely completed required tasks, such as entering protective orders into the state’s domestic violence registry.

The Charleston Gazette says Watkins did not respond to a Tuesday phone call seeking comment and notes that the court entered an order that retains Deloris Nibert, a former Mason County family court judge who was appointed by the court in December to handle Watkins’ caseload after he took an emergency medical leave.

Watkins did not contest the conduct cited by a hearing board of the Judicial Investigation Commission when it recommended that he be suspended without pay for the remainder of his term in office, which concludes on Dec. 31, 2016.

However, he argued that the sanction amounted to removal from office, which the state constitution allows only the West Virginia legislature to do, by impeachment. Hence, the judge said, the supreme court didn’t have the power to suspend him for the rest of his term.

The court disagreed, distinguishing impeachment, which would also have stripped Watkins of his pension and prohibited him from serving in office again, from a suspension and saying that public policy requires that the court use its inherent powers to protect lawyers and litigants from a judge who is unable or unwilling to do his job properly.

It also censured Watkins for 24 violations of nine canons of the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct, which are printed in full in the opinion.

“Socrates said, ‘Four things belong to a judge: to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially,’” the court wrote. “We recognize that regulating the demeanor of a judge is a difficult task, because judges are human and may occasionally display anger or annoyance, and lawyers and litigants sometimes incite judges. Judges must also be allowed some flexibility in criticizing the performance of lawyers who appear before them. But a judge owes a duty to treat lawyers and litigants courteously, to hear them patiently, to study their arguments and evidence conscientiously, and to decide their cases promptly.”

In a concurring opinion (PDF), Chief Justice Brent Benjamin agreed that Watkins should be suspended without pay for the rest of his term but disagreed about the manner in which the court imposed this sanction.

Instead of using inherent judicial powers, which opens the door to potential misuse in the future for political reasons, the court should have simply imposed consecutively the one-year suspensions it is clearly authorized to impose under the state constitution, he wrote.

“While I have the utmost respect for my colleagues and the professionalism of our current court and share their belief that the admittedly harsh sanction in this case is fully justified, I fear how a highly partisan or polarized future court might misuse this expansive new precedent.”

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Protective Mothers Alliance International (PMA International) is a international protective mother-driven organization that includes a global network of like-minded organizations working as a team for positive change.Protective Mothers Alliance International (PMA) is co founded by Lundy Bancroft and Janice Levinson, with Janice Levinson as Executive Director. The PMA INTL family consists of protective mother-driven advocates working together as a tight team for change.PMA INTL is working toward bringing about dramatic reform in family court for protective mothers and their children. PMA INTL. supports the efforts of protective mothers in keeping themselves and their children safe from the abuse of a former partner, and in empowering these mothers to become advocates for themselves and others. PMA INTL. has several networks/groups including but not limited to: Man Up for Moms (M.U.M), Hear us NOW!! ( H.U.N) Healing and Prayer, STOP DV by Proxy.PMA INTL's very successful blog talk radio shows had over 6 thousand listeners . PMA INTL's blog entitled: "The Guardian of Truth" continues to be an effective vehicle for education about family court abuse/ corruption. Protective Mothers Alliance INTL. has launched a gold ribbon campaign in an effort to reunite protective mothers and their children who have been separated by the family court.We invite all advocates and their allies around the globe to wear gold ribbons and to tie gold ribbons around trees, to symbolize the effort that protective mothers and their allies are making to reunite children with their moms.
Please join us in supporting this campaign. " The beautiful memories that we have of our beloved children are golden and can NEVER be erased from our hearts and minds."

A STORY OF HOPE: THE LETTER THAT SURVIVED 9/11/ BY YUKA YONEDA / INHABITAT This story was originally published on September 11, 2014 “Remarkably it survived when so much else did not,” said businessman Raviv Shtaingos about a red envelope he decided to pick up on September 11, 2001 as he fled from Lower […]